This is one of those absolutely wonderful little powertips we’re always thrilled to find. With a simple download of Microsoft’s PowerToys TweakUI (which offers a bunch of other fun goodies for XP) and a quick registry add-in, you can have your system boot up, log you in and lock your machine, so that when you get back to your system, everything’s already loaded and ready, awaiting your password. No more two minute wait until the login screen, and three minutes to the desktop. Now, it’s just five solid minutes.

It might not be very useful if you’re not the type who shuts down often, but BrainFuel cites the perfect example: an uninterrupted boot-up cycle lets you go get coffee or chill at the water cooler.

Check out the full step-by-step over there. It’ll take less than three minutes, and the registry “hack” is the harmless act of placing a “lock computer” command in your startup profile, so no worries there.

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